@22xander: And you accidentally figured out sigils (and maybe others have noticed that both YME and Levran used such things to fire off their more advanced spells). They are meant to be a reveal upon reaching Weisstraugh archives and meant as a major power-up for the mage group. You can keep it, the symbols firing off spells thing. Maybe Nero simply doesn't know the actual purpose behind those symbols, and only uses them because it works? Other than that, due to the limitations of a message board, and cannot manage such thing as levels. While in a narrative sense all characters will level up in one way or another, I can't give you a strict definition for it. Just get rid of that "per level" thing and let those skills improve as the story unfolds. 

Other than that, accepted. Though it would be awesome if you could post Nero's experiences during the briefing. One of the main reasons I never used exact numbers when describing both groups is for new players such as yourself.